degre wrote:The problem is not much in getting started, I guess lots of us at a point signed up to the gym or got on doing some exercise, the problem is consistency, how long do you go before you get bored and start making excuses because you really can't be arsed?

If you're getting bored with your exercise you're either not switching it up enough or you're not doing something that is fun enough for *you*. Also, the longer you keep at something, the more easily it becomes a part of your routine where it gets to the point where it's actually hard to miss a workout. I think the saying is that it only takes four weeks to make a habit or something?

Also, you'll stay consistent with something if you actually see progress, since that's pretty motivational. If you start working out, but then end up overcompensating by eating too much, if your goal is weight loss, then you may not see any progress and figure there's no point in exercise after all.

I read/look at way too many motivational tumblrs and whatnot lately, and damn does that ever keep me going. One of the most commonly used phrases is something like "One hour of exercise is only 4% of your day". And it's so true! One hour is peanuts. I also got to the stage in my life where I'm tired of making excuses. No, I'm not too tired. Yes, I do have time. Yes, it's too hot outside but instead I'll go running in the mornings when it's cooler. No, I won't just eat less today to make up for the lack of exercise. No, I don't need a break. No, my work day wasn't too hard. Like seriously, at some point, you just have to smack yourself and say enough is enough.

Anyway, all that to say... if you don't enjoy your physical activity, you won't stick with it for long. So find something that you truly find entertaining, and stick with it. Be it running, going to the gym, special classes (I just found something called hooping that they've actually turned into an exercise class - yes, with a hula hoop), a sport, dancing, whatever.

Personally there is nothing I find entertaining, the only period I've ever had a fun in a gym was when I used to play to rugby and was training with the team, the fun being the banter, but I don't really care for it otherwise.Anyway, thanks the same but I wasn't asking advice, I have solved differently, I don't go to the gym, I don't do running, I started a simple free body workout that literally takes me 10 minutes a day, no way I can miss that and is getting perfectly in my routine, once you are in the habit of getting things done then you can push up.

degre wrote:Anyway, thanks the same but I wasn't asking advice, I have solved differently, I don't go to the gym, I don't do running, I started a simple free body workout that literally takes me 10 minutes a day, no way I can miss that and is getting perfectly in my routine, once you are in the habit of getting things done then you can push up.

I haven't been to the gym in... an unfortunately long time. I was going to my local LA fitness 3 times a week doing stronglifts 5x5, but then I got an internship where I was able to use the company gym for free, so I cancelled my membership at LA fitness. Unfortunately, I got really sick in mid-june, sick enough to run a fever of 103 and lose 5-10lbs over a weekend, and any strenuous activity for 2 months afterwords sent me into a fit of uncontrollable coughing.

I've been hired by my company since then, but that means I can't use the company gym now until I have health insurance. So I'm just itching to get back into the swing of things and hoping that I haven't lost too much ground since early summer =/

Courage not of this earth in your eyesFaith from far beyond lies deep inside

degre wrote:Anyway, thanks the same but I wasn't asking advice, I have solved differently, I don't go to the gym, I don't do running, I started a simple free body workout that literally takes me 10 minutes a day, no way I can miss that and is getting perfectly in my routine, once you are in the habit of getting things done then you can push up.

On Friday I pick on rotation one of the exercise and after the regular reps I push it as far as I can.

I could easily push way more but the plan is to go light for a bit with a 10 minutes workout to gain consistency and integrate the workout into my daily routine, so far is working as intended.

My main problem with the gym that was causing me to pass was that in between travel time and all together took 2 hours a day and I couldn't be arsed to spend that time, whereas now I'm not doing much, but 10 minutes a day is better than nothing and once is a solid part of my daily routine pushing up the reps is going to be barely noticeable.

With October I'll add a full rep and then I want to talk to a trainer to vary the exercises so that I'm not training the same groups every day, would probably allow me to easily push harder.

I'm not exactly on track (was hoping to have lost another 10 pounds by now), but I have dumped another 6 pounds in the past two months. Having surgery kind of waylayed (sp?) my progress throughout October, but I'm feeling back on track. Just in time for Christmas to come around and nail me in the butt with the goodies + alcohol! (haha)

So I more or less completely stopped working out for the last month or so of the summer, a combination of sickness and losing access to the company gym. But I re-joined my old gym and after a heavy deload and a month of re-training myself, I'm back up to 200lb deadlifts and 150lb squats. Yes, I am still weak, but I'm working my way back up.

Courage not of this earth in your eyesFaith from far beyond lies deep inside

I thought BMI had long been thought of as little more than a handy rule of thumb, I didn't think people actually published serious papers using it as a metric of anything by itself...

e.g. I have a BMI of 22.1 (178 cm, 70kg), which falls almost bang in the middle of healthy weight, but that's because I have comparatively low muscle mass, not because I'm skinny (far from). Ideally I want to drop about 5% body fat and gain about 8-9kg of muscle over the next couple of years, which would put me on the borderline of overweight according to BMI but I'd certainly be in much better shape than I am today.

Think anyone who has well-developed muscle mass with a healthy body fat % would come out as overweight according to BMI, so somewhat skeptical about that study.

Nikachelle wrote:Anything that mentions BMI as the only measurement pretty much gets a pass from me. It doesn't provide enough of a picture to give an accurate assessment.

/Seconded.

I'm 6'4 (193.04cm) and 235lbs (106.6kg). That puts me at a BMI of 29.4 (Overweight and only 0.6 below the marker for obese). However, I'm at the gym lifting and/or running 1.5-2 hours, 6 days a week. I also play endurance sports on top of that for ~1.5 hours a day ~3 days a week. I also have an active lifestyle as a lab monkey and am in no way a fattie.

So dumb.

Edited to add measurements in metric for people who use a reasonable system of measurement.

After a month of consuming nothing but chocolate and alcohol I seem to be up four pounds and am consequently FREAKING STARVING ALL THE TIME since I've gone back to a proper amount of food consumption.

Feel better for exercising regularly again - went out for my first winter run on the 2nd and I'd forgotten just how nice it is to run outside while it's super cold and snowing. I love it so much more than running in the summer.

Uh, I was out for a week or two with a nasty cold, went back to the gym on Wednesday and now I can barely move.

But, on the bright side, I think I finally have my squat form nailed, no hip or knee pains like I was having earlier.

As for BMI, I've been told that it's only really 'useful' as a statistical tool when looking at large groups, but is more or less useless when analyzing an individual, where one should focus on body composition instead.

Courage not of this earth in your eyesFaith from far beyond lies deep inside

Asked at work today. Confirmed: BMI just an easy way of determining at-a-glance what people are at risk for, and an easy way to explain to people "hey, you're fat, and here's the proof". It makes a bit more sense now, but still not much.

- I'm not Jesus, but I can turn water into Kool-Aid.- A Sergeant in motion outranks an officer who doesn't know what the hell is going on.- A demolitions specialist at a flat run outranks everybody.

So the trainer at my gym gave me a bunch of workouts to gain muscle. The 5x5's I've heard about before, but there are a bunch of 4x8's peppered in for certain machines. Anybody have a good explanation for why you would want to do a 4x8 setup instead of 5x5?

Fivelives wrote:Lower repetitions with higher weights is how you build bulk. Higher repetitions with lower weight is how you gain endurance.

So if you're doing 5 sets of 5 reps at 100 pounds (2500 pounds total) on some machines, and 4 sets of 8 reps with say, 80 pounds (2560 pounds total), that would probably explain why.

I understand that. I asked the fitness trainer to give me a program to build muscle. She gave me a combination of 5x5 and 4x8. I was wondering if there was a reason for certain muscle groups to be given one over the other considering the goal is muscle building. I do endurance training at night, so this morning workout is all just for strength. She gave me 5x5 for things like benches and leg presses, but 4x8's for things like arm curls and leg curls. It's the combination of things I find odd. Also, I thought endurance sets were usually more like 3x15, not 4x8.

The way I've always understood it, was that low reps (say, 1-5 reps) with high weight was best for raw strength (increasing your 1-rep maximums,) "medium" sets (5-10 or so)with slightly lower weights was better for putting on muscle mass, and lower weights with very long sets (15+) was best for endurance.

But that's mostly just heresay, and might just be a lot of "bro science." Take it with several grains of salt.

At any rate, as long as you're progressively loading more weight on the bar and eating enough calories, you will build muscle no matter what program you're on.

However, you probably should be squatting instead of doing leg presses.

Courage not of this earth in your eyesFaith from far beyond lies deep inside

Arnock wrote:The way I've always understood it, was that low reps (say, 1-5 reps) with high weight was best for raw strength (increasing your 1-rep maximums,) "medium" sets (5-10 or so)with slightly lower weights was better for putting on muscle mass, and lower weights with very long sets (15+) was best for endurance.

But that's mostly just heresay, and might just be a lot of "bro science." Take it with several grains of salt.

At any rate, as long as you're progressively loading more weight on the bar and eating enough calories, you will build muscle no matter what program you're on.

However, you probably should be squatting instead of doing leg presses.

I guess that makes sense. It was just odd to me, because if the overall objective is the same, why do certain muscles get different treatment?

I do the presses instead of the squats because I hate using the free weights at my gym. There are always a ton of idiots over in that section and I would rather suffer a bit in effectiveness to be able to stay far, far away.

edit: By idiots, I mean guys in wife beaters and spiked up hair flexing in front of the mirror, putting a ton of weight on the bar, and doing a few jerky rapid fire reps with about 10% of the range of movement while reeking of body spray.